“Our leadership recruitment process is still flawed”

Pastor Ituah Ighodalo is the organizer of Rebuild Nigeria Initiative (RNI) and Senior Pastor of Trinity House, Victoria Island, Lagos. In this interview with ENIOLA DANIEL, he talked about peace, economic growth and the 2023 elections, among others.

What is the essence of this dialogue? We have to sit around the table to deliberate whether or not we want Nigeria; and if we want Nigeria to continue to exist as a country, we need to discuss what to do to make everyone happy. We need to discuss the mundane things to the very important and essential items. I think there should be a roadmap of needs, wants and aspirations that every Nigerian wants; these need to be brought together for leaders to consider and propose solutions.

We had several dialogues as a nation and they seemed not to address the burning questions, what are these core leadership issues that we haven't talked about? It's from two angles. The first is that some people from 1966 to date have established themselves as leaders. We don't really have a process to really elect leaders; most of the time they are imposed on us.

The military came and imposed themselves on us. The military took power without understanding the fundamentals. They weren't ready for leadership. They have not been trained or prepared to be leaders. They chose the people who were close to them when they were forced to leave to take over the business. These are the people they could do business with or influence. We cannot question their anointed candidates because they control the bread and the knife, and have continued to attract people like them. They shattered all forms of defining what a good or great leader is and also made it almost impossible to have a good selection process. This caused the whole leadership process in the country to be cornered by one group and that is what we are suffering from now.

They ran Nigeria with the intention of not solving all of its problems. They have kept Nigeria to themselves and are doing what they consider to be best for the country and making us accept it too.

What's the outcome? We must now look at the list of 16 presidential candidates and then speak to us as Nigerians without any bias, without any selfishness and choose the best of them to lead us. We have nowhere else to go. We were stuck. We have to take into account what Pat Utomi called the elite consensus. I say people should now put aside their self-interest - because we vote for what we think is beneficial for us personally, even if it is not what will be best for the general of Nigerians - and vote for the best candidate.

Some of our governors continue to build flyovers, bridges in towns and cities where everyone can see. What people need are good roads to their farmlands, to the hinterland where rural dwellers pass to plant and harvest their crops. People need good roads to bring agricultural produce from their farms to the cities, so they can sell the crops and there is more food. Around 60% of the country's agricultural products are wasted because there are no good roads to the hinterland; meanwhile, there are many overflights in cities which sometimes are not necessary.

What is your advice on this attitude? Well, the truth is, Nigerians are not serious or willing to make the sacrifices or do what it takes to get the right kind of leadership.

We should know what kind of leader to vote for. Nigerians should look among themselves for people who can do the job well and push them to leadership. Nigerians know the thieves among them and have the power not to bring out leaders or lead them.

For example, they should ask, "You've been unemployed for 16 years, why are you coming to the contest? Let this teacher do well to contest for you."

So we should come together and say to some people, don't even bother arguing, we know you, we know your father's house, and we know what you've done before. You are not able to lead us because you did not go to school and such.

What is RNI doing to translate these deliberations into good governance? What we want to do is hear from Nigerians first, through dialogue. Travel through different parts of the country, from creeks to mountains, from savannah to rainforests to get to know the minds of people. We'll go around the country asking people what they want, so we can package those deliberations and get them to people in leadership positions.

The second thing is for those who are angry with each other to sit down and work out their differences. They must agree to work together. If we're not united or working together, we're not going anywhere. People didn't talk...